It is important for a computing environment to provide a simple and effective way to find, organize, and be reminded about content and data. This is, of course, a complicated and difficult problem; one the industry has been struggling with for almost 40 years. By finding, we are actually referring to re-finding something that has already been seen—intentional/conscious retrieval. This a bit different from the task of web searching for something new. Reminding refers to the establishment and use of cues (usually visual) that assist or supplement memory—opportunistic retrieval. Some have referred to the problem as that of “keeping found things found.”
Some functional evaluation frameworks classify three types or sets of information: 1) ephemeral—has a short shelf life and includes items such as unread electronic mail messages (emails), “to do” lists, note pads, memos, calendars, items to print out, forms to fill out, bills to pay, and news articles downloaded from databases; 2) working—is frequently-used information that is relevant to the user's current work needs and that has a shelf life that depends on the lifetime of the project, such as a day or two, a week, or months; and 3) archived—strictly speaking has no shelf life, but is only indirectly relevant to the user's current work, and is infrequently accessed. These items do not go away or become worthless, but they fade from relevance gradually. These functional evaluation frameworks have also identified a number of factors that may be used to evaluate information retrieval systems: 1) portability of information, 2) number of access points, 3) persistence of information, 4) preservation of information in its current state, 5) currency of information, 6) context, 7) reminding, 8) ease of integration, 9) communication and information sharing, and 10) ease of maintenance.
Most computing environments offer a number of tools that attempt to address aspects of the general problem. These often include: desktop (folder), places (folders or collections), search functions, recently used lists, a file manager (e.g., Explorer or Finder), file open/save dialogs (also referred to as file chooser dialogs). Other studies have shown that email, although originally designed as a communications application, has increasingly been used for task management and personal archiving. Some email applications define a few types of information that are kept around and not dealt with immediately, including to-do items, to-read items, items of indeterminate status, ongoing items over a period, and record or history. These may be viewed as another formulation of the three types or sets of information described above.
Conventional computing environments typically store files in file directories of a file system. These conventional computing environments provide a file manager, such as Explorer or Finder, to allow a user to access, view, open, save, create, or modify files in the file system. These conventional computing environments typically provide a desktop view, which is a visual representation of files that are stored in a desktop folder in the file directory. These desktops may be helpful for permanently or temporarily storing files of interest. In general, there are three types of users in these computing environments: 1) “no filers”—never file or categorize information into folders; 2) “spring cleaners”—attempt to file information (often ineffectively) after the organization system has broken down; and 3) “frequent filers”—make strenuous efforts to organize information. Organization information in these computing environments, however, has a number of problems with filing in general. In particular, it is a cognitively difficult task, there are desires to postpone filing judgments, folders may be too small, folders may be too big, folders may be too numerous, and may drastically reduce the reminding function.